Future demand for transshipment facilities at Russian seaports are estimated at 64 mln t per year, IAA PortNews correspondent cites Victor Olersky, Deputy Transport Minister of Russia, Head of Rosmorrechflot, as saying at the meeting of RSPP subcommittee on marine/river transport and port infrastructure.
According to him, the ports of the Azov-Black Sea and the Far East Basins account for the bulk of the demand. Large portion of facilities is required for transshipment of coal (15-20 mln t per year).
“We understand that our capabilities and the capabilities of our exporters are limited by port and railway infrastructure,” explained Victor Olersky.
He also drew attention to the Black Sea ports where regular work is performed to create a required infrastructure.
“As soon as additional facilities are available they are immediately covered by throughput increase”, emphasized the Head of Rosmorrechflot.
Following the discussion of water transport challenges the meeting participants developed proposals to encourage the construction of deepwater terminals, transition from transshipment to direct delivery of containers to Russian ports, modernization of berths, involvement of large capacity vessels, additional loading of the existing container terminals.
Besides, the experts of RSPP (Russian Union of Industrialists and Entrepreneurs) think that property tax privileges are required or replacement with other taxes as the current one complicates implementation of investment projects at ports. In their opinion, the privileges of “free ports” should be expanded to other sea basins.
For the balanced sustainability of all types of transport it was proposed to develop a long-term tariff policy for elimination of imbalances (like those related to the competition between railway and river transport ). It was also recommended to develop a long-term policy of the Federal Antimonopoly Service the pressure of which on stevedoring companies was recognized to be groundless.